


Project Miracle

by Lwoorl



Series: Dick/Wally week 2019 [1]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Dick/Wally week 2019, Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 23:43:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19328524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: Dick and Wally go looking for a weapon of mass destruction.Instead they find a little kid.





	Project Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeeeeeey first day of the Dick/Wally week!!! ✨✨✨  
> I've been working on this one for so long omg! This is what I can get when someone actually tells me beforehand so I can prepare!! 😔👌 [Insert joke about bringing a gun to a knife fight]  
> Don't expect my other entries for the week to be so long though.

There's a sound. A sound other than her heart.

She stirs, her limbs feel heavy, heavier than the last time she woke. Heavy, longer. The back of her head hurts, the cord attached there bending in an uncomfortable position, digging into her shoulder. She wants to reach and adjust it, but her hands are too heavy. Why isn't anyone adjusting it? Why did they wake her up? Didn't they say she had to grow up more? Did she grew up already?

Voices. She hears voices, yes, voices that aren't familiar.

With great effort, her eyelids flutter open. Just a crack, a little peak. There's a… A blur. A blur other than the usual white blurs. A… Red blur. It's the first time she's seen red, but she knows it's the name of the color. It matches with a lot of the images inside her head. Red.

There's that voice again, coming from the red blur. Another blur enters her field of vision, this one is dark. Dark, black? But it has some… Blue? Blue. Like the sky and the ocean she hasn't seen, blue. Red. Blue. Two new blurs and two new voices.

She hopes they will fix the wire. It hurts.

She closes her eyes and goes back to sleep.

 

\----------

 

"You said they were building a weapon." Wally mutters, looking at the little kid inside the tube. It's hard to distinguish her form through the opaque crystal, he can barely make out the color of brown skin, but he thinks she was awake just now, if only because of how the body shifted, as if trying to swim inside the liquid. He lets his eyes go back to where Nightwing is sitting, the sound of the keyboard echoing loudly into the room as he gets into the system, and repeats "You said they were building a weapon, right?"

Dick doesn't answer, just keeps typing codes into the computer. Wally rolls his eyes, typical bats.

He takes a chair and sits next to the tube, his attention back at the little girl as she curls in her sleep and hides her head between her knees. He probably should be scoping samples from the lab, looking into drawers, helping. But he just can't look away from the tiny figure floating in there.

Less than a minute later, (still an eternity for him) the sound of the keyboard stops, a soft "Fuck." A pause, and the typing resumes.

"What did you find?" He asks, standing up and walking towards his boyfriend. Dick barely lets his fingers slow down as he turns to say.

"I think the kid _is_ the weapon."

Wally blinks. He turns his head back towards the tube, at the kid who can't be older than six. The fearsome weapon is sucking her thumb.

"Fuck."

 

\----------

 

"They called it Project Miracle. As far as I can tell she wasn't supposed to be 'activated' for another nine months." With his free hand, Dick makes air quotes around the word _'activated',_ the other one being too busy carrying the child bundled in a blanket, careful not to touch the back of her head from where a piece of wire is still sticking out, it was too dangerous to just take it out. He wonders if it will take surgery.

"So, a clone?" Robin pops up on the screen, walking to stand beside Batman as if he had been there the entire call. It makes him smile a little.

"Depends of your definition." Wally chimes in "You know how Connor has a mix of both Superman and Lex Luthor? Well, her DNA is all over the place." He gestures towards the kid. "Take some hundred something people into a blender and you get the kid. It seems like it was pick and choose until they got what they wanted. Honestly I couldn't even tell you which samples actually made it into her."

"And what did they want, exactly?"' Batman asks. Probably only he notices, but Dick can see he's frowning more than usual.

"It doesn't seem like she's dangerous. Not yet, anyway." He tells him, knowing that's likely what Bruce's the most worried about. "All their notes talk about her powers being undeveloped or 'unusable'. As far as I can tell, it's related to matter manipulation, but it was too much information to parse. I'm sending you the archives."

"Hnn." With a final grunt he cuts off the communication.

"Goodbye to you too." Dick says to the air as he rolls his eyes. It makes Wally snicker.

"So, what now?"

"I guess we take her to the watchtower." Dick answers. "I want the doctors there to check her over, make sure nothing got damaged when we took her out the tube."

Both of them grimace, thinking back of when they opened the container, how the kid threw up amniotic fluid and then choked on air as her lungs adjusted before passing out. They made sure to follow the extraction procedures, but it's obvious they weren't meant to be used yet.

"And the wire." Wally sighs and reaches to move black locks away from her face.

"And the wire." Dick agrees.

 

\----------

 

The first thing she notices is the weird smell. They didn't give her information on smell, she doesn't know what this is. She's only known the smell of the liquid in her pod. She doesn't know what other things smell like.

The second thing is a sound. A beeping sound. Oh, she knows what this one is. An electrocardiograph machine consists of a set of electrodes connected to a central unit. Early ECG were constructed with analog electronics where the signal drove a motor to print it out in paper. Modern electrocardiographs use analog to digital converters to… Anyway, she knows what that sound is.

She remembers now. There were two blurs, and then her throat and chest hurt a lot. She remembers… Drowning. And then the blurs turned into faces. Two faces, the two first faces she's ever seen with her own eyes. They holded her, rubbed her back. They were… Kind. And later… She doesn't know.

She opens her eyes.

She sees a white ceiling. She tries moving her head, but, it hurts a lot. She raises an arm and touches it. It's easier than when she was in the water. There's something around her head, from the front to the back, the wire is gone. A… Bandage. And she is in a… Hospital. They put a lot of information on hospitals. Why did they teach her so much about hospitals? That's dumb. Hospitals are dumb. She's decided she doesn't like them.

She pushes herself up. Something's in her arm. An IV. The intravenous route of administration can be used for injections or infusions, typically using only the pressure supplied by gravity. Intravenous therapy may be used for fluid replacement to correct…. Hospitals are dumb.

She looks around while holding the back of her head with both hands. No one's around. Why is no one around? Where are the white blurs? Where are the two real faces? Where's Red and Blue? They aren't supposed to leave her alone. She wants someone. She wants someone here and she doesn't like hospitals. Please don't leave her, she just woke up! _Don't leave her._

Her throat hurts. It doesn't stop her from crying her heart out.

 

\------------

 

"So what is going to happen to her?"

"Well, the league's going to find someone who can take care of her."

"But, meanwhile?"

"I… Don't know." Dick admits "I suppose she will stay in the watchtower."

"This place is really not designed for children." Wally tries to make it sound nonchalant, a casual comment, but he must have failed spectacularly, because when he looks back at his boyfriend Dick's frowning.

"You want to keep her?" Dick asks, and it almost sounds like an accusation.

"What? No, of course no!" He quickly defends, raising his hands as if forming a meek emotional shield. "Our jobs don't leave us the time to raise a kid anyway. It's just…"

"Just…?"

"I just… Feel responsible, you know? We found her, it doesn't feel right to just leave her here. It would be just until the league finds her a family, how long would it take? A week? Two at most?"

"Wally…"

"We work at different hours too. And sure, we would have to go easy on patrols, but if it's just a couple of days it's feasible."

"Look, I get it." Dick places a hand on his shoulder. "I feel bad about leaving her too, but she's in good hands. Our apartment isn't apt for children and the closest thing either of us have to experience with kids is babysitting Lian. If it makes you feel better we can visit her sometime soon. Yeah?"

Wally bites his lips and looks down. There isn't much he can say to answer to that.

Dick opens his mouth to add something else, when suddenly a cry sounds through the hallway, and before his brain can even process it he's already speeding towards the room.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" He shushes as he kneels next to the kid. She immediately leans into him, grabbing fistfuls of his costume and placing her head on his shoulder, leaving a wet spot there. "Shhhh." He rubs circles on her back, like when they just got her out of the water. It seems to calm her a little, even if it doesn't stop the tears entirely.

"Ggghhh…. Gheeeed…." She babbles, burying herself as much as she can into Wally. In response he sinks his nose in the black turf of hair sticking from the top of her head.

"Hey now, you're safe now." He feels more than hears Dick as he lowers himself next to him. The kid in his arms turns her watery face towards the sound, and quickly launches herself towards Dick.

"Bwuee…. Bwueeee!" She cries. For half a second, Dick's eyes widen, unsure what to do about the bawling infant grabbing onto him, before his expression softens, and holding her with both arms he starts to rock her. Wally moves a hand to her head and carefully pets what isn't hidden by the bandages.

"Dick, come on." He pleads.

"We can't."

"She needs us."

"She's attaching to us because we're the first people she saw, give it two days and she will fall in love with Diana and Clark."

"You can't be serious. Just look at her."

"Wally, no, we have to leave he-"

The girl must have been understanding their conversation more than they first thought, because at that sentence the tears that had calmed down come back in a frenetic waterfall.

"Don weave me! Donw weave!" She screams into Dick's chest as they try to wipe the water from her face.

"Shit." He whispers before going back to talking in her ear. "Hey, hey now, no one's leaving you. Come on."

"We-Really?"

"Wally." Dick sounds pained. When he raises his eyes, he sees the way he presses his lips in a thin line, how the space between his eyes wrinkles. Torn.

Wally hopes he sounds more sure than he feels when he says _"Dick._ _Please."_

He frowns, look between him and the little kid. And Wally can pinpoint the exact moment he crumbles. "...I guess it would only be two weeks."

"Did you hear that?" He tells the child, as his thumbs clean a tear that's running down her cheek. "You're coming home with us!"

 

\--------------

 

It goes surprisingly smoothly from there. Dick gets a hundred justifications ready that he only half believes, and yet when he tells Bruce their idea he just looks at the kid clinging onto him for dear life and gives him an aprovatory nod.

No one stops them, no one even comments on how badly planned it is for them to take her home, and the thought that maybe he's the only one who sees all the problems with this, that maybe he's just being paranoid, almost convinces him this is a good idea.

Then they get home and he has no idea what to do next.

He looks down at the kid in his arms, a pair of bright blue eyes looking at him like expecting something, then back at the apartment, then at Wally. "We should… Make something to eat." He decides, remembering none of them has eaten anything since the lab.

"Good plan." Wally flashes him a thumbs up before speeding into the kitchen where he starts sorting through the pantry. "Do we have any soup left? They said she shouldn't eat solids until tomorrow, right?"

"Try the second cabinet." He replies as he moves to put some pillows on a dining chair before depositing the kid there. She lets go without any problem, but her eyes doesn't leave him as he goes to help Wally.

They make some sandwiches with chicken ham and cheese and tomato and that expensive jar of mayo he stole last Christmas from the manor while a bowl of tomato soup spins in the microwave, and soon the three of them are sitting at the table.

"Do you know how to use a spoon?" He asks the kid after she stares at the liquid for a moment.

She blinks, looks at him and says. "Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock or water. Canned soup was invented by Doctor John T. Dorrance in 1897 while working with the Campbell Soup Company and can be made on the stovetop or in the microwave."

"Uh. What?" Wally asks as he bites into his second sandwich. The kid doesn't pay him any mind as she leans into the bowl, inhaling the fume coming from it, and then sinks the spoon into the liquid as if stabbing someone. She extracts a good amount, and leans forward instead of trying to bring it to her. Then she tries and fails to place the whole spoon inside her mouth, spilling half of the liquid.

"Ok. No." Dick reaches for a napkin and cleans the soup running down her chin. Then takes some with the spoon and moves it to her face, she lets him feed her without any resistance.

 

\-----------

 

The door opening wakes him up. He looks at his right, where Wally is still soundly asleep, before sitting up.

The girl stands at the door, wriggling her hands in front of her. "What's it?" Dick asks, infusing as much kindness into his voice as he can when being woken at 3am on a weekday.

She seems to take it as some kind of permission, because she disappears into the living room before quickly coming back inside, two blankets tied to her waist dragging on the floor like a skirt and a pillow under one arm. She walks until she's standing next to the bed, where she quietly puts the pillow on the floor and starts to accommodate the blankets into some kind of nest.

"What are you doing?"

She stops. Looks up. "Can I sleep here?" She asks with a tiny, shaky voice that makes Dick's heart ache.

"Come here." He raises the covers, and when she just look at him as if not knowing what to do he clarifies. "Come sleep in the bed."

It's a bit hard getting her accommodated without waking Wally up, but soon the kid's sleeping between the two of them, her face relaxed as she sucks on two of her fingers.

"Goodnight." He mutters as he, too, goes back to sleep.

He wakes up the next morning when in her sleep the kid kicks him on the face.

 

\----------------

 

"We need to buy her clothes." Dick says at breakfast, while helping the kid eat her cereal. Wally looks at her. At the white t shirt the league got her, it has a couple of food stains near the neck, and the gray pants, the boots rolled in half so she won't step on them, and nods. They should have done that yesterday in all honesty.

"What else do we need?"

"Um, toys?"

"The oldest known doll toy is thought to be four thousand years old." The girl helpfully adds.

"I will take that as a yes."

 

\----------------

 

Red and Blue… No, Wally and Dick. Wally and Dick, she reminds herself. Wally and Dick are… Weird. She isn't sure what they're trying to do, why they carry her on their shoulders, why they take her to buy stuff for herself. She knows her function, this isn't what the Project is for, they're deviating from it. It's confusing, but she won't complain. It's… Nice.

They take her to a store (It's a new smell!) and tell her to point to any clothes she likes, so she wanders towards a mannequin with a long dress. They meant clothes of her size, they correct, and she crosses her arms and hmfs, she can't follow orders if they aren't clear on the first place!

Taking her by the hand, they guide her to a section with smaller clothes. Everything's bright and colorful, and it immediately cheers her up. She goes from one extreme of the ale to the other, rubbing her cheeks against every single shirt and dress, throwing them into the car if they're soft enough. When the pile of clothes is high enough, she's planning on telling Wally to put her on the car's seat, and then will jump into them when he gets distracted.

"How's it going?" Dick returns, a basket in one hand. He raises an eyebrow when he gets a look inside the car "Wow, isn't that a bit too much?"

"What's dating a billionaire's son good for?" Wally shrugs. "Anyway, what were you even doing?"

"Socks, underwear, pijama, etc." He starts to put the contents from the basket with the other clothes. "Thought it would be faster."

She pouts, knowing it will be harder to put her plan in practice now that they're two again. She ignores their conversation to go back to the shirts and pants, when something familiar catches her attention.

"It's the same as you!" She exclaims, running towards Dick and Wally and pulling at their pants, pulling them towards the thing. There's a collection of shirts, all with colorful logos on the center. There, near a corner and near the top are a red shirt with a yellow lighting and a black one with a blue symbol respectively.  

"Huh. Didn't they teach you about superheroes?" Dick asks, bending so he's closer to her heights.

She bites her thumb and thinks. Superheroes, eh? Now that she pays more attention to the other shirts….

"Superman!" She says, pointing at the one with the big S, and "Wonder woman!" And "Batman" and "Green Lantern!"

"That's all?"

That's all? Hm. She can't think of any other, so it must be. "That's all." She answers.

"They gave you information about green lantern and not about The Flash?" Wally gasps. A hand on his chest, like it hurts. She nods emphatically, she has no idea who that Flash person is!

Dick goes back to standing straight and puts a hand on Wally's shoulder. "I'm sure they were planning to teach her about you at some point." Then, turning back towards her. "See all those symbols? Each one is from a different superhero. Do you know about the Justice League?"

"I know about the Justice League!"

"Well, there you have it. All those heroes work with the justice league."

She nods, it makes sense. The justice league is supposed to be very big, of course she didn't know of all the members!

Wait

If Dick and Wally have their own shirts, aren't they working with the Justice League too?

So the Justice League has her?

_….Isn't that really bad?_

 

They hold her by the hand and drag her to picking toys, but she's too distracted to care about any of the stuffed kittens and dogs they shove on her face. They decide she's _tired,_ they pick some dolls and toy cars and other stuff for her. And then walk towards the register.

While waiting in the line, something gets put in front of her face. It looks… Like a paper ball on a stick. She follows the hand holding it towards an arm and a shoulders and finally Wally's smiling face.

"What's that?" She asks, eyeing the thing suspiciously as she takes it between her fingers.

"It's a candy." He responds, moving to unwrap the paper to expose a bright blue ball inside. "Didn't they teach you what a candy is?"

She shakes her head and tries real hard not to frown. The more time that passes, the more frustrated she gets with the information they gave her, it's filled with dumb things like _hospitals,_ but not with things she really needs like _smell and cereal_ and _flash_ and _candy_ and she doesn't like not knowing a thing.

"Well, do you know what sugar is?"

 _Sugarcane originated in tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia-_ "Yep."

"Candy is made of sugar, you're supposed to eat it."

She looks back at the ball thingy in a stick. After sniffing it, she decides to try her luck and licks it.

It's… _Amazing._ She quickly shoves the whole thing inside her mouth, only the plastic stick sticking out.

If only for a moment, she lets herself forget of the fact she's in real big, not at all good, huge problems.

 

\------------------------

 

He's going for water, so it's truly an accidental thing that Wally catches her.

He's returning from the kitchen, small water bottle in one hand, when his eyes meet another pair of blue, really big ones.

The girl's wearing a jacket, and under that her pajamas, the unicorn ones, all clothes they bought earlier that day. Under her right arm there's a pillowcase filled with toy cars, all hazapardly wrapped in a blanket. The other hand is on the latch; She's standing on a chair so she can reach it.

From the pockets of the jacket he can clearly see a fork and a butter knife sticking out, as well as the toothbrush they got her.

They stay frozen for what feels like forever, neither of them daring to even breath. Finally, Wally takes a gulp of the water he's carrying, and asks. "Hey… Kid… What are you doing?"

 

\------------------

 

She's scared.

She sits on the couch, her feet rocking back and forth as she hugs herself very tightly. Her eyes follow Dick as he walks into the kitchen, makes coffee, and comes to sit next to Wally in front of her.

"Can you tell us why you wanted to run away?"

She shrugs and looks at her knees, biting her cheeks. Her bottom lip starts to tremble and the back of her eyes ache, but she refuses to cry. She refuses. She brings her hand to her face and sucks her left thumb.

The worst part is that she was _so_ close! And she planned it really well, too. She waited for them to go to sleep and then walked on the living room back and forth to see if they really were out, and only then packed all the things she needed to take and moved a chair to open the door. And before, at the store! She made sure to receive the change from the cashier and rubbed a bill through all her fingers, and then later when they stopped to buy food she made sure to pass her hand over all the berries! If it wasn't because of Wally's stupid water she would be free right now. If he had went for it earlier or later they wouldn't have catched her in the middle of opening the door.

And now…

She presses her lips around her finger and her eyes and throat burn.

"Hey, we aren't mad." Dick continues, softly, like he means it. It makes her shrink a bit more. "We just want to know why you wanted to leave."

"Because…." She sobs "You're _bad."_

Wally's eyes go really wide at that, while Dick start frowning, they look at each other before the later starts to ask, very slowly. "Did we… Do something you didn't like?"

She shakes her head, because that's part of why it's so bad! Because they haven't! They have been nothing but nice to her! Which is why she has to leave before their goodness run out and do something really bad! Cause they're bad people so their goodness gotta run out at some point!

They exchange another little, confused look. "Why do you think we're bad?" Wally asks. She narrows her eyes trying to keep the tears at bay.

"Because… The Justice League are bad guys…"

A silence. She looks really hard at her knees. She wonders what they are gonna do. Maybe they're gonna boil her and eat her, bad guys eat kids, right? Tears start to form at the corner of her eyes.

"Of course they would tell her that." One of them sighs, she isn't sure who.

"Look, I know they teached you that about the Justice League, but it's a lie, they're good. Their work is to help people."

She frowns and shakes her head. "I'm not wrong!" She shrieks. She isn't wrong! Her information is right! How _dare_ them accuse her of lying?! "I'm right!" She yells, the tears now running freely down her cheeks.

Both of them grimace. Wally moves to put a hand on her, but Dick stops him and shakes his head. She brings her feet onto the couch and puts her knees close to her chin, like how she used to sleep in the pod.

"Why do you think the Justice League is bad?"

"Because they told me!" She screams, like it's really obvious.

There's a beat, and one of them asks.

"What can we… Do, to convince you it isn't true?"

 

\----------------------

 

"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Dick mutters into the intercom. Like he isn't in the middle of fighting five armed guys.

"Hey, we said we would do whatever she asked." Wally answers into the line. Down there, Dick makes an impossible spin and kicks a guy on the face. The kid cheers. He isn't sure if promoting violence is a good thing.

They're sitting on a relatively hidden firescape, watching as Nightwing fights on the alley below. He's in his Flash suit, his arm around the shoulder of the girl bundled in two jackets and a hat.

They've been spending all night carrying her around, stopping at any crime scene and asking her "You think those are good or bad guys?" Before going to fight them. So far, it seems whatever indoctrination they gave her, she still has enough common sense to distinguish a mugging as a bad thing. So, small mercies.

She's slowly starting to regain her confidence around them, and he wants to think it's more because of seeing them helping the victims than fighting criminals. But can't be sure.

A guy tries to sneak behind Dick. Wally can see he's aware of his presence, it's in the way Nightwing's posture changes, how he gets ready to counterattack. The girl doesn't though, and moving to press the com (she just pulls his ear instead) exclaims into Wally's ear "Nightwing! Behind you! Watch out!" making him wince and pulling away.

When he looks back down the guy is already down, leaving only three left. Normally they all would be out by now, and Wally thinks Dick's intentionally trying to show off. His theory straightened when he makes a totally unnecessary back flip.

"I'm just saying." Dick says again when there's two left. "I refuse to create a five years old vigilante."

"Now, there's a big difference between bringing a kid to patrol and letting her actually fight. Besides, what did you want us to do? Tell her _no?"_

"But what if it ends inspiring her? It just seems-" He pauses to evade a knife and hits the dude on the back of the neck. One left. "It seems irresponsible, ok?"

"It's just once."

"It always start with just once, how do you think I started?"

"B is weak with kids and you had your whole revenge thing going on." The only man left standing puts his arms over his head, giving up. "Besides, I think she likes just watching, it's not like she wants to jump in there." He turns towards the aforementioned kid. She's completely concentrated on the fight below, sucking on a lollipop. "Where did you get that?" She shrugs as an answer.

"Red Robin started just watching, so it seriously doesn't make me feel better."

"I'm sure it will be fine. Hey, do you want to dress like a furry and fight crime?" He asks the girl.

She shakes her head before stopping to ask. "What's a furry?"

"See? She doesn't want to."

"Mhm. I'm just _so_ relieved."

"Hey, tell me! What's a furry?!"

"It's not like we could keep her away from the hero stuff forever anyway, I mean, she was in the watchtower already, not to mention how we found her. Or are you telling me the League is planning to leave her with a completely normal family?" He sighs. Dick finishes tying everyone up and starts to climb towards their location "And isn't it better if she knows exactly what we do instead of whatever they told her?"

"You're way too permissive." Dick sighs, now next to him.

"What? No, I'm not."

"You are though. You would be lost without me." He places a hand on his hair and plants a kiss on his cheek before looking at the kid. "Did you give her candy?"

"I have no idea where she got it."

"Mhm." Dick hums in a way that just says he doesn't believe him, before kneeling next to her. "Hey, no eating while grappling."

She shakes her head. "No! It's mine! You can't have it!" She challenges.

"It's for security, come on, hand it over." He holds a hand up as if expecting her to give up the lollipop. The kid moves away and her face starts to get red in a way that makes it obvious she's going to cry. Oh God damnit.

"You can keep eating it later, ok? It's just while we move you." Wally intervenes. The kid eyes him wearly.

"But you two can't have any, promise?"

"I will protect it with my life." He swears, a hand on his chest, and it seems to relax the kid. Slowly, Wally moves to pull the lollipop out of her mouth. She lets it go and it comes out with a pop.

"But you gotta give it back!" She reminds him. He pulls out a zip bag, the kind they use for evidence, and puts the candy inside.

"Of course." He smiles, before turning towards his boyfriend. "Man, you would be lost without me."

He can tell Dick rolls his eyes under the mask.

 

\--------------------

 

He wakes up when Wally sits up and turns on the bed lamp, but Dick still doesn't move. As far as he knows whatever it is doesn't amerite waking up.

"Dick, Wake up." _Well, shit._

"What's it?" He mumbles into his pillow, not really wanting to get up unless it's actually an emergency.

"Dick, don't be a dick and wake up!" Wally shoves him. _Oh come on._ Begrudgingly he pushes himself up.

"What?"

"Dick holy fuck she doesn't have a name." His boyfriend exclaims with big round eyes, like that explains why he's awake at 4am.

"Eh? No way." There's no need to clarify who he means. Dick scrubs a hand against his face, cleaning up the remaining doziness. He frowns and thinks about it… And... Now that Wally mentions it, they have been calling her 'she', 'kid', 'girl' and 'child' all the time she's been with them, haven't them? "Oh my God, we've been birdboxing her for almost a week now."

"What do we do?" Wally asks, his voice a whisper. When Dick looks at him, he's wrinkling his forehead like he's really worried.

It's ridiculous. Here there are two adult men waking up in the middle of the night at the realization the kid they're babysitting for doesn't have a name. And yet, Dick gets why it's affecting his boyfriend so much. How did he allow himself such oversight?

"I guess we ask her what she wants to be called?" He proposes. Wally nods and starts getting out of the bed when Dick catches his arm "In the morning, I mean."

"Oh…" Wally looks at where his hand is holding him, blinks, and goes back to settling in bed. Turning the light off. "Right."

"Goodnight Wally." Dick mutters as he goes back to sleep.

"Night."

 

\-------------------

 

"Project Miracle."

"That's… Not a real name." Dick says. Project Miracle crosses her arms and frowns.

"My name is Project Miracle!" She repeats, that's her name, doesn't matter what they tell her. So what if the Justice League is _maybe_ not the bad guys? What if her information is _maybe_ not all 100% right? It's not a matter of right or wrong, it's _her name._ Hers. And she won't let anyone come and _steal_ it. And if Dick and Wally think they can just ask her to hand it over she will- She will… She will kick them on the shins! Yes!

"That's what they called you, but you can chose a real name now, it would be better if you pick something more-" She kicks Wally on the shin. "Ouch!"

"It's my name!" She screams, and then kicks Dick too for good measure.

"You aren't anyone's science project." Wally tries again because he's _stupid_ and _doesn't get it._ "Let's give you a person's name, yeah?"

"It's a person's name! It's _my_ name! Mine! Mine! _Mine!_ I'm a person! Shut up shut up shut up!" She starts to cry. "You can't have it! Mean! Bad guys! Evil! Wicked!" She cleans her tears with the hem of her pijama, even though new tears keep coming to replace the old ones. "It's-! Its mine…"

She feels big hands on her shoulders and then rubbing her back up and down. When she opens her eyes she finds herself on someone's lap. She finishes cleaning her tears and then gestures for them to put her down.

"So, what if you go with Miracle, or maybe Mira?" Dick suggests. She frowns at him.

"My name is Project-!"

"My name is Richard John Grayson." Dick calmly tells her "And Wally's is Wallace Rudolph West. _No one_ who knows us calls us by our complete names. Ever. Project Miracle isn't bad, it's a pretty name, you can keep it, but it's a bit long, don't you think?"

She looks down and think for a moment. So they're talking about… A nickname then?... As long as she can keep her name she… Supposes it's fine if others call her something shorter… "Mira is fine…" she concedes. Dick smiles and messes with her hair. "Stop that!" She complains, but it just makes them laugh at her.

 

\------------------

 

"You aren't actually going to write 'Project Miracle' on her birth certificate, are you?"

"Of course not, that would be like an invitation for people to find her. Knowing bats, when he makes it he's gonna put something completely unrelated, like Mary or Anne."

"Isn't that a problem? You just told her she could keep the name."

"I don't see why it would be?" A shrug "I mean, how many aliens do you know whose human name isn't the same as their real name? It's like that."

"I guess…"

A raised eyebrow "...Ok, what's really bothering you?"

"I'm not… Fine. Do you think it's good for her to keep the name? The guys wanted to turn her into a weapon, that's a weapon's name."

"I don't think she sees it that way…"

"It just doesn't feel right."

"What do you want to do? You saw how she reacted. We got her to call herself Mira, isn't that good enough?"

A sigh "I guess."

 

\-----------------

 

"Why do I keep finding all these bouncing balls?" Wally asks, bending down to pick up the five yellow rubber balls he's found while swiping under the couch.

"We bought Mira a jacks set, didn't we?" Dick responds from the kitchen, not looking up from doing the dishes.

"I'm pretty sure it only had two balls. Did you buy her more?"

"Nu-huh. She must've found them stored somewhere, don't we keep a bunch of old boxes under the bed?"

"Yeah? I don't remember ever buying a bag of rubber balls though."

At that, Mira looks up from the TV and runs towards him. "My yellow balls!" She excitedly exclaims, going to stand next to Wally, bouncing up and down on her feet, doing grabby hands.

He gives her the toys and Mira goes back to sit closer to the TV than she probably should, letting the balls fall to the floor and catching them when they jump. One of them scapes her grasp and goes rolling under the TV table. She doesn't even look at it and just keeps playing. Wally sighs, resigning himself to the fact he will have to get used to finding toys everywhere as long as the kid stays.

Later, when they watch a movie on the couch, he feels himself sit on something. Standing up, he finds another two rubber balls of the same color.

"Just how many are there in this house?!"

 

\----------------

 

"What are you watching?" She asks, approaching the TV. Wally pushes a button and the image of a planet freezes.

"Just some old science show, found the tape while cleaning yesterday."

"Can I watch?" She asks even though she's already taking a seat besides him. If he says no, Mira's going to throw a shoe at him.

"Uh, sure." He absently answers, and unpauses the image.

 _'Nothing can escape a black hole…'_ the narrator continues, and then goes to explain about mass and stuff. She has some information about physics, but, not too much.

It's a bit hard to follow, and she doesn't know all the words, but now and then it will tickle at her brain - _Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the estimated 300 sextillion stars in the Universe are invisible to the naked eye from Earth, including all stars outside our galaxy, the Milky Way.-_ and if she can follow that, she can understand the show too.

"That's pretty cool." She can't help but to say when they start talking about how little earth is. They put it next to the sun, and then that sun next to another sun, and then it keeps going until not even the third sun can be seen. It's so… _Big!_ It makes her head spin a little. She wonders how they recorded that, and imagines a camera crew in a spaceship, going around space taking pictures. Even if it takes them a million years to get a shot.

"You like it?" Wally asks, she looks away from the screen to stare at his face. He's got his mouth open, like it's weird or surprising she likes cool stuff.

"Of course I like it!" She exclaims, throwing her arms up. "Space is so big and weird! And it's cool to know how people know how things work, don't you think?! It's super far away and they still know, it's really cool!"

"Science _is_ pretty cool." The corners of Wally's mouth turn up. She nods in agreement and goes back to paying attention to the TV.

The video finishes faster than she wanted to. She bounces on her seat and demands "The next one!" And when Wally doesn't put another one she frowns at him.

"Uh, I only found that one. I'm pretty sure I have the rest of the collection somewhere though, how about I look for it and we keep watching when I find it?" He proposes. Mira crosses her arms.

"I wanna watch now!"

"I don't have the rest right now."

"Now!"

"Hm… Hey, how about this." He starts to say, one finger up, like he just had a great idea. "We can watch something in Netflix about astronauts now, and I promise I will find the other tapes so we watch it this weekend. I will even get snacks and all. Sounds good?"

Mira huffs and pouts, not happy with having to wait. But then Wally puts on a movie about a guy who gets clues from a ghost and then falls into a black hole and she can't help but to concentrate on it instead of being mad.

Despite her best efforts, she falls asleep when the guy discovers he's the ghost.

 

"I… Can teleport." She whispers when she wakes up on her bed, despite having fallen asleep on the couch. This is the second time it happens, and two times already makes a patron. Mira then spends all morning trying to activate her teleportation powers. They don't show up, so she supposes they only work when she falls asleep on the couch, as that is the _only_ logical explanation.

 

\----------------

 

"Mira, come on, we will be late!" Dick calls, looking into yet another cranny. Curse kids and their ability to hide in small spaces. "Any luck?" He asks Wally as he comes from the spare room they accommodated for her, even though he already knows the answer.

"Still looking, you?"

"Nothing." He sighs and rests his weight on the nearby wall. He will have to apologize to Bruce next time he sees him for ever hiding from the charity balls. And the hospital visits. And the first day of school… Hm. He was kind of a handful as a kid. "Project Miracle I will count to three! One! Two! Three!" She doesn't come out. Aren't kids supposed to obey when you use their full names? He always did so when his mom called him Richard. "Wait." He straightens up. "I have an idea."

"By any means..."

"Mira!" He exclaims, loud enough it sounds in the entire apartment. "Can you tell me what a laryngoscope is?!"

It doesn't take long for the answer to come, soft and muffled, in a way he can barely distinguish one in every four words "Light source… blades… design… vagus nerve… Laryngoscope… blade… Macintosh... is the… curved laryngoscope blades… 1895…" Dick and Wally go back into their room, from where the voice comes from even though they already checked there.

"Not under the bed." Wally calls, as he takes out the boxes just to be sure. Dick is looking into the closet, moving the clothes. Empty. She must be somewhere in the room though.

"Wait." Wally stands up, and moving Dick away from the closet reaches for the suitcase they keep under the shoes. There's a muffled scream when he pulls it out. They open it and lo and behold, there Mira is, curled inside the bag.

She tries to climb out and run towards the door, but Dick catches her by the middle and carries her in one arm, dangling next to his hips. "Let me go! Put me down!" The kid moans.

"Not if you'll run to hide again, come on, we're already late." He tells her, already walking towards the door. The kid kicks and pulls at his hand but it's of no use.

"No! I don't wanna! You can't make me!" She shrieks "I hate hospitals!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to and yes, I can make you. Now come on, people's waiting for us." He tells her as he throws her over his shoulder. She slaps his fists against his back and kicks. Dick has to put his other hand up to stop her feet from hitting his chin.

"Evil! Bad guys! Traitors! Mean! Hospital lovers! Snail heads!" She vociferates all the way to opening the front door.

"Come on Mira, we will get you something good when it's over. You know what ice cream is?" Wally, sweet, precious Wally tries to reason. It doesn't stop her tantrum at all.

"I know what it is! I know what it is and I don't want it! I don't want to go!" She shrieks and kicks harder. Dick thinks she probably doesn't know, otherwise she would be spouting facts about where it was invented and the like. The kid just hates not knowing something someone else does.

"Too bad." Is all Dick tells her, fed up with having been looking for her around the house for an hour, and knowing Batman is going to chew him about being late. Let the kid threw a fit, he decides, she's going to burn out eventually.

Some people give them weird looks as they walk down the street towards the z tube, but no one says anything. Having the kid screaming 'I don't want to go to the hospital' at the top of her lungs probably helps to convince any observers it's just a pair of parents with a kid having a tantrum and not someone being kidnapped. By the time they reach the phone cabin her screams have subsided into soft "I don't wanna"s

 

\---------------------

 

Hospitals are dumb, they really are. But even she has to admit it's nice not having that gaze around her head anymore, it was itchy.

Also, ice cream is really, really good! It's soft and sweet and cold! She's about to take another spoonful when she gets a great idea. Putting the spoon aside, she gets a lollipop and sinks it into her chocolate cup, using it to bring some to her mouth, not paying any mind to how a good chunk ends on her clothes. She sucks at it, and frowns. It's not bad, but somehow it doesn't taste quite as good. So maybe two good things not necessarily make a better one. Hm.

"Why did you give her more candy? She's already eating ice cream." Dick frowns at Wally after taking a look at her.

"Hey, now, I didn't give her that, I swear I don't know where she keeps finding those." He responds, raising both hands in a defensive stance.

"Where did you get that?" Dick asks her, and because she's still mad about them dragging her to the hospital (Even if the ice cream is good) she points a finger at Wally.

"Wally!"

"Mira?!" He sends her a betrayed look. Mira just huffs and takes more ice cream with the lollipop, too stubborn to give up on her invention just yet, ignoring Dick scolding Wally on the background about children and toothrot. More chocolate drips into her dress.

 

\-------------------

 

Mira's acting weird.

He noticed since this morning, Dick probably noticed too. For the first time ever she refused to eat, and later, when Dick left to go to work, she didn't even say goodbye.

Wally isn't sure how to deal with this, it isn't the same as screaming and throwing a tantrum, she's just looking down, not saying anything, and answering with a shrug anytime he asks if she wants to do something. It feels so out of character for the ball of energy she's been since day one.

Sure, he's only known her for a couple of weeks, and some people are like that, getting shut into themselves now and then without it meaning anything, but he doesn't think that is the case. It doesn't feel normal, and he has no idea what caused it. Everything seemed fine yesterday.

They're 'playing' with her cars, but really it's more Wally moving them and making sounds, trying to animate her into joining. She will touch a toy now and then, rolling it between her fingers before putting it down, but not much more.

"Mira, are you ok?" He asks for what's got to be the fifth time.

He doesn't expect an answer, it didn't work before. But to his surprise she actually looks up and says. "I had a bad dream."

"Oh…" He lets go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. _'Good. So it was just a nightmare. It wasn't my fault'_ Is the first thought in his mind. He frowns and shakes his head, Mira having nightmares is _not_ good, what is he thinking? "Do you want to talk about it?" He asks as he scoots closer.

"No." She shakes her head. He sighs and takes a moment to think.

"You know. My aunt used to say you need to talk about what bothers you, because that's how those stuff gets out of your head."

She frowns and looks at him. "Will the dream stay in my head if I don't talk about it? I thought dreams just… Went away." She asks wearly.

"Oh, they can." He answers, and it's probably not a good thing to tell a kid, but hey, in his experience it _is_ true. "Bad things _love_ to stay inside your head. You need to force them out, otherwise they just get cozy and never leave."

Mira bites the tip of her thumb and looks down. Wally looks way, if only to give her privacity while she's making up her mind. It takes a moment, but finally, she speaks.

"I was in the pod. With the wire in my head." She whispers, so low Wally fears he will miss a word if he so much as breathes. "The blurs… _You and Dick_ were there, but. You didn't see me and left, and I- I was-" whatever she was, she doesn't say, because the fat, ugly tears running down her face stop her from speaking.

Without missing a beat, he moves to hug her. She presses her face against his chest, like that time at the watchtower. At first he thinks the sounds she's making are just sobs, but then realizes she's muttering words into his shirt.

He moves his head closer to hers and tries to pay attention to what she's saying. It's distorted and muffled, but he still tries to listen.

 _'I like being a person'_ he's able to make out, and that sentence has him clinging a lot tighter to the kid.

Eventually she falls asleep, her hands falling to her sides when she lets go of his shirt. He should get her to bed, but it's like now it's Wally the one who can't let go.

"I won't let anyone take you." He mutters into Mira's hair, even though she can no longer hear him. "I promise."

 

\---------------------

 

"I found the tapes!"

"Let's watch them!"

"Ok, just let me get ready the snacks!"

 

\----------------------

 

"Ok you pair of slobs, we're going out!" He proclaims, pulling out the charger cord.

"Whaaaaat?!" Mira exclaims, standing up and looking up at him, completely and utterly devastated.

"Dick, come on." Even Wally complains, looking at him like he betrayed them. Instead of honoring them with an answer he throws their clothes at them.

"Get ready, we're going to the park."

"But I want to learn about space!" Mira whines, kicking the clean outfit onto the floor.

They've been locked in the living room since Friday, now the entire weekend! Just eating chips and soda and watching one of those science shows Wally likes. Because of course the kid that recitates history facts about soup would turn out to be a huge nerd. _Of course._

He gets how tempting it is to lock oneself and watch movies for days, he really does, he himself has done it several times, but that doesn't make it a good thing to do. And as always, if one of them fails to be the responsible one the other has to pick up the slack, that unspoken compromise is the only reason Dick and Wally aren't found eating takeout every other day.

"It's not healthy, and it's a nice day out. We will go out, and you will have fun, come on."

Wally sighs and stands up from the couch. Mira stares at him like he just stabbed her, and after other ten minutes of convincing finally gives up.

Once out, she keeps the frowny face for about fifteen minutes, before her mood goes up again when they pass in front of a florist and they let her sniff a couple of plants.

They continue all the way with her giving one hand to each. Every two minutes or so she will jump saying "Up up!" And they will yank her by the arms and let her swing a bit between the two of them. They keep that up until they reach the park.

"Ohhh, can I go play there?" Mira asks once she sees the playground, letting go of their hands and pointing at the monkey bars.

"Go ahead." Wally says. She looks at Dick for confirmation, and when he also nods she goes running to play with the other kids.

They go sit on a bench and watch her play. She tries climbing a bit before talking with the other kids that stop at the bars, and then quickly joins their game of tag.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask…" Wally begins, with that tone of voice he uses when he says something like a throwaway comment but it really, really isn't. Dick gives him a quick glance before going back to watching Mira. As expected, his eyebrows knit and he's biting his cheek. "How… Is finding her a family going, any progress?"

"There's some candidates but…" He carefully thinks his words "Nothing else. It will probably take another week, maybe a bit more. They want to figure out what exactly her powers are before handing her over."

"Oh. That's… Good."

Deciding he can't have this conversation without looking at Wally's face, Dick turns his head towards him. "You know we can always visit her, right? We can be, like, the fun uncles."

"I guess." Wally looks at him. "Well, I can be the fun uncle, you're more like the mom."

"What? I'm not-"

"You totally are. So maybe the aunt? I can be the fun uncle that watches science shows with her and you the nice aunt that tells them not to do it all weekend."

"So you're Barry and I'm Iris?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Mhm…"

They go silent after that, just watching Mira running to catch the other kids. She trips once, falling on her knees and hands. Wally moves as if he was going to go there, but then sits again when she just stands up and keeps running like nothing happened.

"We… Talked about having kids someday, remember?" Wally breaks the silence. Again, trying so hard to make it sound casual. Again, failing so hard at it.

"In the future, yeah. When we have the time and the money. We're too busy right now."

"We have the money, I'm sure if you tell Bruce…"

"He doesn't-"

"He won't say no to you. He would never say no about that."

"That's not a-"

"And if we don't need more money there wouldn't be a need for the two of us to work either. So that solves the time issue too."

"I'm not leaving my job, you know that."

"But I could-"

"You- You can't be serious." Dick has to look at him at that, his eyes wide open. Wally _loves_ his job. He wouldn't- Would he?

"It's just…" Wally passes a hand through his hair before looking at him. "She's _right there,_ Dick. And I don't want to regret not having said anything once she's gone. I really, _really_ like her."

Dick holds his gaze for what feels like forever, and then has to look away. "Wally, I get it. I do. Kids grow quickly on you when you're the one taking care of them. But you have to remember you're not her parent."

"But I could be- _We_ could be. Are you telling me you don't like her too?"

"I'm _not_ changing my life to accommodate a kid we didn't expect. I'm not begging Bruce for money and you're not leaving your job. Someday we can adopt one, yes, but I want us to be sure we're ready when we do. I want it to be our decision, not just- Not just something luck threw on us. That doesn't end well, I _know._ I'm not doing that again. _"_

"You're... Talking about Damian."

Dick's shoulders twitch. He places a hand on top of his eyes, palm out, and takes a deep breath.

"I… I really thought of him as my son for a moment, you know?" He quietly admits "I mean, I'm happy Bruce's alive, and I'm happy with the relationship we got. It's for the better that he's with his dad, I really think so. I'm happy we're just brothers. But. I suddenly had to put everything on hold to take care of the kid, and for a second I really thought of him as my _son._ And then Bruce came back. I can't do that again Walls."

"But Damian had Bruce. Mira doesn't have parents. No one's going to come take her from us."

"She does, we just haven't found them yet."

"It could be us."

"Wally, no I-" He sighs and swallows before going on, looking at Wally on the eye. "It's not just that. The leaving my life for a kid, I can't do that again. I like my life, I really do. Someday we can have one, but it will be when we're willing and ready, with enough time to get things set beforehand and have thought it through. Not now. I'm not Bruce, I can't just take in any orphan we come across and then scramble to accommodate them into my life."

"It's not the same, with Damian you also had to move to another city, take over Bruce's job, become Batman, I'm not asking for any of that, just for the kid. We don't have to change our lives that much just to keep her."

_"You were just talking about leaving your job."_

"I… But just mine, not yours. And it was just an idea anyway."

"Wally…"

"Dick!" He jumps when a high pitched voice calls him, alongside a small hand tugging at his pants. He looks down and finds Mira, looking up at them.

"Ah… Everything okay kiddo?" He puts on a smile.

"I'm thirsty!" She exclaims. He takes her hand and stands up.

"Let's go to the bending machine then. I will buy you a soda."

"I want fanta!"

"Ok then, let's go… We will, talk about this at other time." He adds to Wally as they three begin to walk.

 

\--------------------

 

Something pokes him on the ribs and Wally wakes up. He looks down and finds Mira, her limbs spilled on top of him and Dick. She must've entered while they were asleep. She does that sometimes.

He moves her so she's resting between the two of them, and then pulls the covers up to her shoulders. She will most likely turn it into a tangled mess in about ten minutes, again, but hey, it's the intention what counts.

In the darkness of the room, with the only light being the streetlamps outside, he can barely make out her face. But all too easily he can picture those bright, blue eyes staring right at him.

Mira's made out of hundreds of people, kind of like a Frankenstein of DNA. In the database of the 'donors' it went from Justice League members, to super villains, to civilians. So he wonders if she's got some of Dick's. The hair and eyes are pretty close, they could probably pass as family, but maybe it's just wishful thinking.

He wonders if she's got anything from him too. If he squints in the dark, he thinks he can see similarities between her nose and his, but it's _definitely_ just wishful thinking.

There's the freckles, he supposes, but those don't look like his at all, more like someone blew dark dust into her face, so no luck there either.

He passes a hand through her hair, and stops when his thumb rubs against the back of her head, against the little, circular scar there, because the guys from the lab couldn't find a better way to teach her anything other than _hooking a cord directly into her fucking brain._

He thinks about that, and remembers those ugly little, painful coughs and gasps for air when they just got her out. If he closes his eyes he can hear them, the little choking sounds.

It was bad then already, it's always bad seeing a kid suffer, but now that he actually knows her, actually cares for her on an individual level, now that he _loves_ her, the idea just makes him angry, because how dare them make this kid go through that? _His kid?_

And then it makes him even angrier, because he can't be mad at them, not really, can't really hate them. Because they made her exist on the first place.

Mira mumbles something like _'But I don't want blueberries'_ in her sleep, and he can't help but to smile. No nightmares tonight.

"Sweet dreams, Miracle." Wally whispers as he leaves a kiss on her forehead.

 

\--------------------

 

"Teach me how to do a backflip."

Dick looks up from what he was reading, some passive aggressive report about the lab's archives being too vague and still not knowing what the kid can do and 'Have you seen anything weird?'. He leaves the tablet on the kitchen counter, and looks down at Mira.

She's wearing the swimsuit they bought her. The one with the red flowers "What are you wearing?"

The girl grins with all her teeth and spins as if modeling "It's my gymnastics suit!" Eh. Close enough, Dick supposes "Teach me to do a backflip!"

"That's a bit too advanced, don't you think?" He answers, and when it seems like Mira's going to start crying quickly adds "How about starting with a headstand?"

The kid brights up immediately "Yeah, let's do that!" She nods.

They go to a wall on the living room and after he does a demonstration start to practice. Mira isn't _bad_ at it, but she keeps bending her arms. Anytime he mentions it she straightens them for ten seconds and then forgets again, but she doesn't have problems spider walking on the wall by herself to get in position, so there's that.

"After this can we do backflips?" She asks from her upside down position.

"Don't talk. Also, you're starting to bend your arms again."

She frowns and lets herself fall to the floor with a "Buuuuu!" Dick has to catch her so she doesn't hit her head. "This is boring!" She complains, lying face down on the floor.

"You have to learn the basics first." He explains for at least the third time. She raises her head to frown at him. "Why do you want to learn gymnastics anyway? Not that one needs a reason to."

"Because I wanna be cool like Nightwing, duh!" She sits up. Dick blinks.

"Uh?" Some of his surprise must show on his face because Mira looks at him and rolls her eyes.

"Because you're, like, paw and pow and swshaa!" She explains, throwing weak punches and doing weird gestures with her hands Dick supposes are meant to mimic his acrobatics. "It's _cool!"_

He probably should be worrying about the kid wanting to imitate him, after all that's what he warned Wally about when they took her with them for patrol many days ago, but he can't help but to get a warm feeling in his chest at the complement.

"Of course he is, he's the best acrobat in the world." Dick feels Wally's voice in his ear, who until then was just watching them from the living room without saying anything. He puts his arms around his waist and leans on Dick's back.

"Oh, is he now?" He hums as Wally rests his head on the crook of his neck and leaves a kiss there.

"Gross. I take it back, you guys ain't cool at all." Mira states, wrinkling her nose  and then going back to crawling on the wall, presumingly so she doesn't have to look at the pair of saps.

 

\-------------------

 

Wally opens the door, enters his apartment and takes a picture with his phone of the scene unfolding in front of him before anyone can move. Speedster perks.

"Ah, hi." Dick greets, his face a bit red, but he doesn't lower his hands from where Wally supposes they're making an imitation of a Trex. Or a zombie. Or, something, there's green paint on his arms and, is that two party hats on his shoulders?

"Wally!" Mira tackle-hugs him. He spins her on the air and squashes their noses together before putting her down.

"Hey Mira, what did I miss?!"

"Dick's Godzilla!" She excitedly explains, pointing a finger at him, then at the paper rolls on the floor. "He's destroying the city!"

"Oh. And you're… The superhero stopping him?" He asks, looking at the red blanket around her shoulders. She makes a face.

"No-oh!" She sing songs, grabbing her cape and holding it up Dracula style "I'm the bad guy!" She runs back to Dick-zilla and burying her hands in her pockets pulls out two handfuls of yellow bouncing balls, throwing them on the air. They scatter around the living room and hide under the furniture. _(He's SO not retrieving any of them.)_ "I'm leaving Godzilla eggs all around the city! Muahahahaha!"

"We watched Godzilla." Dick adds, as if that clarifies anything.

"That's nice." He leaves his shoes and jacket and refuses to read too deep into the kid wanting to play the villain. That's a normal kids thing right? He's still a bit paranoid about the lab indoctrination.

"Wally, come play!" Mira calls, taking a hold of his hand and pulling him towards the center of the paper city.

"I'm going, I'm going. What will I be? Another Godzilla?"

"Dick's already Godzilla." She frowns.

"Didn't you leave eggs around the city? I thought he hatched from those."

"I'm mom Godzilla." Dick explains, kicking another 'building'. Mira cheers. "She stole my eggs so I came to the city. That's the evil plan."

"Ok then. What should I be, Mira?"

She smiles at the question and climbs on the couch, probably to look taller. He hears Dick snort behind him. Standing on the armrest, Mira inflates her chest and with both hands on her hips proclaims. "What took you so long, Flash?! You will never be able to win against my Godzilla!"

Wally blinks, surprised and kind of touched, and then, before anyone can move a finger, changes into his superhero suit. "Oh, we will see!" He responds, dramatically and overacted and _fun._ "You won't get away with this, villainous Mira!"

"My name is Dr. Godzilla!"

"You won't get away with this, villanous Dr. Godzilla!"

As if on cue, Dick moves to throw a fake punch. "You will have to beat me first!" He exclaims. Mira does a sign, opening her hands twice, and at the instruction Dick adds. "Roar!"

They play fight for a while, with the kid cheering on the background. Cheering for _both_ of them, as if having forgotten which team she was in. "Go Godzilla! Go Flash!" And now and then moving in to try to kick or punch one of them, to what they make sure to overreact, holding the 'injured' part and saying something like "I've been mortally wounded!"

Somehow, the fake fighting turns into an actual spar, because of course it does, and both of them end struggling in a lock on the floor. Mira walks in and steps on them, one foot in each stomach, and yells.

"Just as I planned! My enemies have destroyed each other!"

"I thought we were in the same team!" Dick complains.

Ignoring him, she throws up both arms and says, louder  "I win!" Before letting herself fall on top of them and starting to laugh.

 

\--------------------

 

_'Are those your parents?' 'I don't have parents.' 'Everyone has parents!' 'Not me.'_

Mira keeps thinking about that conversation with the other kid at the park. It's been days now, almost a week, and she still thinks about it.

Now, lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling at night, putting a finger in her mouth and another in her nose, she thinks about it again.

He sounded so sure. But. Parent is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male through the sperm, and a female through the ovum. She was born -Not born- in a tube, made with a lot of people. So either she has many parents or she hasn't any.

But then again, adoptive parents exist.

If she goes with that definition... She supposes Dick and Wally qualify? She lives with them, and they take care of her. They're… Nice.

Is she going to stay with them?

She's stayed so far, so she supposes. It's not like they will tell her anything anyway.

She should ask. After all, that's what asking is for, right?

 

\------------------

 

"Are you my dad?" With those simple four words, Dick's heart comes to a halt.

He looks down, at the little kid looking right at him, and he can't open his mouth to answer.

"Hey, tell me!" Mira asks again, pulling from his clothes. Breaking the spell.

"I don't know." Is what his tongue comes up with. And he shouldn't say that, he should go ahead and tell her _no_. He should explain they're just taking care of her while they find her an actual family. But...

Mira's eyebrow shot up. "You don't know either?!" She gapes. Then frowns and sucks her bottom lip. "Do you think Wally knows?"

In a panic, Dick kneels before her and places his hands on those small shoulders. "Mira, look at me. This is important" He tells her in a rush, moving his hands to cup her face "You can't ask Wally that. You can't say anything about this to him."

"Why?" She asks, the confusion written all over her face, and Dick doesn't know what to tell her.

How do you explain to a kid who just asked if you're her dad that you had a discussion with your boyfriend about whether to keep her? _And that you're on the side of not doing so?_

"Because… I will buy you whatever you want if you don't." He settles for instead.

She's obviously not happy with the answer, but seems to think over the offer, her eyes squinting until they're no more than little slints.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Anything-anything?"

"Anything-anything."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"Pinky swear?" She holds up a tiny, small hand. It squeezes something inside Dick's heart.

"Pinky swear." He promises, hugging her tiny finger with his.

 

\----------------

 

"Where did you get that?" Wally asks, pointing at her lollipop. Mira just shrugs as an answer. "You shouldn't eat candy at this hour."

It's right then that the window opens and Nightwing gets in. "Hi." He starts to say, when he takes a look at the living room. "Wally, why is Mira awake at two am? And eating sugar?"

"I've been trying to get her to sleep but she said she wasn't tired."

"Of course she won't be tired if you keep feeding her sweets." He starts to argue. Wally takes a step back.

"I swear I'm not the one giving them to her. Right Mira?" He asks her, she just shrugs once more.

Tuning the adults out, she goes back to playing with her toy cars.

 

\---------------

 

"Dick, I want a  bicycle."

"Ok."

"A pink one."

"Got it."

"With a dragon."

"I will see what I can do."

"Let's go buy it tomorrow."

"Sounds good."

Wally looks up from the newspaper, pretty sure the exchange he just heard gave him whiplash. "I'm sorry but did you just agree to buy her a bicycle? Just like that?"

"It's fine, right?" Dick shrugs "You keep saying I need to loosen up. Besides, all kids have one."

"I didn't have one… Anyway, I'm not, I'm not really complaining? I'm surprised, is all."

"Bicycles were invented in 1267BC to carry the Roman emperors around." Mira adds, not looking up from the TV where a commercial featuring a bicycle is still playing. Wally turns towards her.

"Really?" He asks.

"No." She answers, and promptly starts to laugh her ass off. Even Dick, his back resting against the wall, covers his mouth and snickers.

Wally takes a moment to gape at them, and then launches towards Mira, to tickle her sides. "Oh, you little-!"

"Noo! Wally!" she screams between laughter, kicking the air until the two of them are left gasping. When he looks up, Dick's recording it with his cellphone.

"So." He sits up. "A bicycle with a pink dragon you said?"

 

\----------------

 

They don't find any pink bicycles with a dragon, nor one with a pink dragon, but they do get a black one with a pink snake and that's apparently good enough for the kid.

They're on a parking lot. One of them stands at one end while Mira pedals towards him, the other one holding her cycle. She didn't want training wheels, saying she didn't need them, but once they actually got her to start learning to ride she refused to try it alone, even with the assurance that Wally can run to catch her if it seems like she's going to fall.

They've been having a silent argument for almost an hour now about who's the one who will betray her confidence and let go.

It's during Dick's turn, one quarter into the run, that she seems to gain a sudden burst of confidence and exclaims. "Let go!" For a moment, Dick isn't sure how to react, and the kid has to repeat "Dick, let me go!" For him to release the seat.

She makes it a good chunk alone, and when it seems like she's about to crash with a wall Wally's there to stop her. She dismounts from the bicycle and jumps. "I did it!" She exclaims, giving Wally a hug. And then she's running towards Dick to do the same. "Dick, I did it!" She cheers, her face against his stomach. He picks her up and throws her into the air a couple of times. "You did it, Mira!"

She laughs like it's the best thing ever, and then hugs his head. "Thank you!" She mutters into his hair. It makes something warm grow inside his chest, like a seed sinking roots and then growing up his throat. He gives her another squeeze before letting her down.

"What are you talking about?" He smiles as he rubs a finger against her cheek. "I didn't do anything at all."  

She just grins at him, like that's an answer.

 

\----------------

 

"We need to talk."

"Because no one has _ever_ been nervous hearing those words."

"Dick, I'm serious."

He sighs and, taking a sip from his cup of coffee, goes to sit next to Wally at the table. "Yeah, I know."

"We need to talk about Mira."

"It's late though, do we… Need to do this right now?" He slowly asks, even though he already knows the answer.

"Dick. We _have_ to talk about this. She's already stayed longer than we originally thought, and I'm afraid any day now we're going to receive orders to hand her over to someone else and that will be it." Wally moves to take the coffee from Dick's hands and drinks a bit before continuing. "I don't _think_ you're stalling on porpoise but-"

"Of course not."

"Then you agree we need to talk about this."

"Yeah. You're right." He sighs again. "She's asleep, right?"

"Yes, I checked."

"Ok, good."

"Look, I know I can't force you to anything, but. I really think she would be fine with us. I love her, I do. _I want her._ Don't you like her?"

"Of course I like her."

"Then-"

"But you can't just… _Adopt a child_ based on _liking_ them. I'm not ready. Maybe later, but… Not now."

"She is here _now_ though. She won't be in the future, won't wait for you to be ready."

"Wally, it's not like she's dying if we don't keep her. She's getting a family either way. And I'm sure we still could visit her. She will be fine."

"But it's not the same."

"Of course it isn't. But... It will be alright."

"We have taken good care of her so far."

"For some weeks, sure. You can't compare that with a lifetime."

"It's just…" Wally passes a hand through his hair. Sips more coffee and gives the mug back. "You keep going over logistics, but I keep thinking that's really the least important thing. We can deal with all that if we want to. We got friends to babysit if we're too busy, and I'm sure the league would give us support too. And I'm not even mentioning Bruce. Our lives are flexible, always have been, we can deal."

"...I'm not ready Wally."

"You keep saying that, but what does that _even mean?_ "

"I just can't… We can't."

"I… I get it. It's scary. You feel like you will fuck up, or regret it, or, or something, because it's not something you can come back from. Me too. But don't all first time parents feel like that too? Just because… Just because it will be a big compromise, it doesn't mean you have to avoid it."

"I…"

Suddenly there's a hand on his cheek, moving his face so he's looking at a pair of piercing green eyes. They look at him like reaching into his soul, like Wally can see under all his layers of acting and deception, all the masks he usually wears. It sends a chill down Dick's spine.

"I think what matters the most is if we want to have her. Everything else we can figure out after. So." Wally swallows, his Adam's apple bubbling, and retrieves his hands, folding them on the table. "Tell me, do you want to? Because I do, but… If you look at me on the eyes and tell me you don't, I promise I won't touch this topic again."

Dick has to break the eye contact. He looks down, his throat feels dry. He takes the coffee and drinks all the liquid left in one gulp. Licking his lips, he raises his gaze again, meeting Wally's. He looks at his eyes and takes a deep breath.

"I don't." He lies.

He can see the way Wally slumps down. It's like watching a building crumble on slow motion. His shoulders saw, his lips thin, his eyes are casted down.

"Ok." Wally whispers, like it physically hurts him to get the word out. It hurts Dick to hear it, too.

 

\----------------

 

**I found out where mira was getting all those lollipops from.**

Wally looks at his phone. The message was sent three hours ago. He replied almost immediately with

**Where?**

And as an answer just got a cryptic picture of a strawberry. Damnit Dick.

He's been pushing it out of his mind all through work, but now as he walks up the stairs to his home he has to admit he's curious what it will turn out to be, he's imagining a giant stack of candy behind the fridge or something.

At the very least Dick will stop thinking he's the one feeding her candy, so, hurray.

He pushes the door open and finds Dick and Mira, both sitting on the couch as they eat from a bowl of strawberries, looking at something on Dick's phone. On the coffee table, there's a collection of small objects, rings and coins and some candy too. And on the floor...

The floor is littered with. Those. Damn. Bouncing balls.

"Do I want to know?"

"Yes, you do." Dick looks up and raises the bowl towards him. "Come here."

He sits down next to Mira and wordlessly takes a strawberry. "So, how does her supply of candy relate with." He gestures with a hand towards the million rubber balls. "All this."

"Ok, first of all, I want to apologize for assuming you were the one giving her the candy, but you have to admit it was a great explanation."

"Fair. To be honest I also wondered if maybe it was _you_ and blaming me was a cover up."

"I guess I deserve that."

"So, where was the stash?" He asks, popping another strawberry into his mouth.

"There wasn't a stash."

"How so?"

"Hm, it's better if you see it. Mira, show Wally."

The kid nods. She finishes chewing the strawberry that was on her mouth and raises both hands, showing they're empty, then slowly puts her palms together, the fingers interlocked. She keeps them like that for about five seconds before quickly separating them, and when she does so a lollipop falls from them and onto her lap. Wally's eyebrows shot up.

"Is that…?"

"So, remember how we knew they were working on something with matter manipulation?"

Wally looks at the candy, then at the kid, and finally at the balls on the floor. "She… Made all of this, didn't she?"

"We were testing it." Dick answers, offering the bowl with the fruit again. Wally absently takes another one, now knowing they were spontaneously created by the kid. He turns it in his hands, as if trying to find something that differentiates it from a normal strawberry, and then bites it when he doesn't.

"So you know how it works? Is she creating mass? Pulling it from somewhere else?"

"I'm still not sure. It seems like she's limited in both mass and volume, her maximum is around one big strawberry." Dick takes another one, as if to illustrate his point "If she pushes it she can get to one and a half, but it takes her a lot of concentration. She also has to wait some seconds between uses and she gets dizzy when she passes the ten and a half strawberries mark per minute. I think it's related with her sugar level but she won't let me get near with a lacet."

"Did you just turn strawberries into a measurement unit?"

"Shush. There's air displacement, so she isn't turning the air into something else, I thought it might be converting energy, but she doesn't get tired nor hungry by using it."

"This is boring." Mira complains "Dick, gimme your phone."

"Just don't break it." He handles it easily and the kid retreats with it into her room.

"You were saying?"

"Right, she also can't make anything she hasn't touched before, and it doesn't seem to work on liquids or gas, also she can't copy electronic information. We tried with one USB and the copy was usable, but empty. Although it's hard to know if the limitations are related with her powers being undeveloped or if they're hard stops."

"Well, that's good isn't it?" He leans into the back of the couch. "We were worried about her powers, copying objects isn't too weapon-ry as long we don't let her close to anything really dangerous."

"Yeah, that's what I was going to get into." Dick makes a face. Searching into his pocket, he takes out something wrapped in a baby blue handkerchief and hands it to him. When Wally unwraps it he finds a green rock, one he's only seen a couple of times but can immediately recognize nonetheless. He sucks in a breath.

"Kryptonite?"

"It makes sense when you consider that lab was associated with Luthor." Dick shrugs, not quite nonchalant. "I asked her what else she could do and she gave me this. She doesn't remember coming in contact with it and we sure as hell would have noticed, so it must have been from very early in the tube. They probably-"

"They were planning to turn her into a supply." Wally finishes for him. That white hot anger he's come to know so well lately coming back, making his mouth taste sour.

"I think that too."

"Can she… Unlearn how to copy something?" A kid who can create kryptonite at any time, especially if she doesn't understand just how valuable the material is would be… A hazard.

"It's too soon to tell." Dick admits. "I'm taking her to bats tomorrow, he'll be better at figuring this out."  

"Not the watchtower? Why?"

"You know Bruce is a controlling asshole, also… Mira, do you want to go to the watchtower?!" He calls.

From Mira's room comes a muffled "I hate hospitals!" Dick gestures with a hand as if saying 'see?'

"Ok then, Wayne manor it is." He concedes.

 

\----------------

 

Every five minutes or so, Bruce will look up from where he's studying the kryptonite to stare at them. Wally noticed, and he's pretty sure Dick noticed too. Bruce must have noticed they noticed and even Damian, training at another section of the cave, barely visible from here, must have also noticed. But they all do the polite thing to do and pretend they don't.

He's sitting on the medical bed alongside Dick and Mira, playing some 3 players game in his phone. She was unhappy when she first saw the medical equipment, ready to cry _'I hate doctors and hospitals and such',_ but they gave her some chocolate and she calmed down, because apparently all kids love when people give them candy, even those who can make as much of it as they want to.

Both he and Dick look up when Bruce stands from his place at the microscope and Mira cheers when she wins because neither of them were looking at the screen.

"I can't find any distinction from natural kryptonite." He says, taking the rock from the machine.

"That's bad, right?" Wally asks, if only to fill the silence. Bruce frowns and doesn't honour him with an answer.

"I already promised I wouldn't make more green rocks!" The kid wines, proving, not for the first time, that she understands more than what they give her credit for.

"And we believe you." Wally assures her, moving a finger through her short hair. "But there are some people who would do really bad things to get more green rocks, so we still worry."

She frowns, obviously not happy with the answer, but doesn't say anything and goes back to the game.

When he looks back at the bat, he has that look on his face again, one he can't read. He wonders if Dick knows what it is, he's way better at reading him, what with being his son and all.

 

\-----------------

 

"What did you want to talk about?" He asks, closing the door of Bruce's study behind him and sitting at the other side of his desk.

"It's about the kid." Bruce answers, unhelpfully, because _obviously_ it's about Mira, what else could it be about? This entire visit is about her. "As you know the Justice League has been collaborating with the government to solve the case around her."

"They gave us the location of the lab, yes, why?"

"There were some objections at placing her with a family, people who think they should study her first."

"You mean locking her up on a lab." He frowns.

"Hm."

"But you aren't handing her over, are you?" Dick has to ask. Bruce wouldn't, he knows he wouldn't, but he still finds himself growing anxious, his muscles tensing, his body getting ready for… For what?

Take the kid, run away, hide from the Justice League?

...He's surprised to find the answer is _yes._

"Of course not. It's a kid." Bruce replies, sounding almost offended, and Dick finds himself relaxing on his seat. "But it does mean we need to figure out a permanent family for her soon. To avoid any complications." He continues, oblivious of Dick's mini realization just now.

"How soon? Like… A week?" He's a little afraid to ask.

"Two days, at most."

"That's… Too soon."

"I wanted you to help me review possible candidates, given that you know her better." He takes out a tablet and hands it to Dick. The screen shows an Excel document, with a list of names and small descriptions.

He absently scrolls through it, not paying as much attention as he probably should, his mind still a little stuck at _'Mira's leaving in two days'._ There's some people he knows, others he doesn't, he can tell they're good people...

His eyes land on one of the boxes and his eyebrows shot up.

_Richard John Grayson and Wallace Rudolph West ; Association: Justice League. Secret identities: Nightwing and The Flash. Candidates recommended by: Batman._

"Bruce, what is this?"

"As I said, those are just possible candidates. Nothing's decided yet."

When he looks away from the screen, Bruce's started clenching his jaw, like he does when he's worried he fucked up. He's waiting for him to get angry, Dick realizes.

That's to be expected, what's unusual is that… He isn't.

He should. He hates when Bruce goes behind his back to do stuff like this, always believing he knows what's best for everyone. Normally he would be storming out by now, yelling something about him not having a say in his life, and how dare him? And does he even know what he thinks on the matter? But… He isn't angry. Maybe a bit irritated, because you can't just _not_ be when Bruce pulls this kind of shit, but…

He pitches the bridge of his nose, if only to bring his mind back to the conversation, and when he opens his eyes again Bruce has that _look._ The weird one that he had in the cave. The one he hasn't seen before today.

 _'Ah, he honestly thinks I want to adopt her.'_ Dick abruptly realizes.

"Did you even try to look into these candidates?" He muses, like he didn't find his name in the list. If he starts speaking in first person, something tells him they will start to fight. "I'm pretty sure I saw some that didn't even have the capacity to raise a kid."

"If you mean financial income I'm sure we can arrange it so the League gives them monetary support in exchange of making sure the kid doesn't become a potential threat." Bruce plays along, perfectly impersonal, which is good. If they go on like this they might even be able to end this talk without someone yelling. "Supposing they prefer that over accepting help from Wayne Enterprises."

"And the age? A couple of them look a bit too young to me."

"Most are around their mid twenties or older, hardly an odd age for becoming a parent."

"And did you make sure to ask all of them?" He taps the screen, more a nervous movement than to make a point, but it works either way. "I think most people wouldn't appreciate having such responsibility thrown on them."

Bruce waits, his eyes showing he knows what he wants to say, just doesn't know if it's a good idea, and then says it anyway. "Of course we won't force anyone, if any of them refuses we can go with the next one. As I said, it's just a list of people I thought were good suited for the task... That's why I ask for your opinion."

Dick bites his lips. He could argue more, could bring the issue with time, what with both of them having full time jobs, he already tried that one with Wally after all; And that ties up with their vigilante activities too, he could play that card, could go with a few different angles, maybe about how someone who risks their life so much isn't the best possible parent, or perhaps going on about how a kid would hamper their ability to operate on the streets.

If worst comes to worst and it escalates into an actual fight, with yelling, things breaking, and someone punching the wall, and Dick finds himself in the need to say something truly evil he no doubt will regret, he could always bring up Jason and Damian's deaths. Maybe even drag Steph and Cass into that mess too.

Instead, he leaves the tablet on the desk. "I need to think about it." He murmurs, already standing up. He walks towards the door and Bruce only stops him when he's got one foot out.

"Tell me as soon as you make up your mind."

Dick absently nods, and finally exits the room, tired as if he had just fought twenty armed men for two days straight, not sit fifteen minutes to talk.

"Goddamnit."

 

\-----------------

 

"What did Bruce want to talk about?"

"Nothing important." Dick huffs, coming to sit next to him. Wally closes the book he was reading and moves to give him space. He's never been a fan of visiting Wayne manor, but if there's something he appreciates it's the library.

He might or might not have stolen a couple of textbooks in the years he's been dating Dick. But, admittedly, they always end stealing stuff when they come for family reunions (The biggest heist so far being their current microwave) and it's not like Bruce cares.

"It doesn't look like it was nothing." He comments, looking him over. Dick's got his hands closed into fists and his shoulders up to his ears, whatever it was it's got him tense.

"Do I _need_ to talk about it?" He sighs, and then rests his weight against him. Wally shifts to accommodate him better, so Dick's head is on his stomach and he's got an arm around his back. "Hm. Where's Mira?" He mutters into his shirt.

"Last time I saw her she was following Damian around. He wasn't being mean though, so I wouldn't worry."

"Of course he isn't, she's a baby. All Robins know not to be mean to a baby."

"You give him too much credit."

"I don't."

"You do. Now move so I can go back to reading."

"Fine, fine."

 

\-----------------

 

Damian's fun, she's decided.

He keeps moving around the house like he's running away from her, but still turns around when she calls him, with a fake smile so badly put even she can tell isn't real. It actually started pretty believable, but as time passed it turned more and more forced. Like he _really_ doesn't want to be around to 'babysit' her _(Wally's word, not hers, she doesn't need anyone to babysit her!)_ but still tried to do a good job. She kind of wants to see what happens if she makes him mad.

"Damian!" She calls, and he turns around like clockwork. "Piggyback!"

"Absolutely not." He grunts and turns around again. Hmmm. So maybe he isn't as easy as Dick and Wally. That's fine. She's still gonna convince him eventually. "I still don't understand why Richard and Father allowed you out of the cave, even if it's a kid, this still is compromising our secret identities." He grumbles, and it's the first actually vaguely mean thing he's said so far.

Mira gets the impression he's like this all the time when he isn't dealing with kids.

"Richard's Dick, right?"

Damian raises an eyebrow before answering. "Yes. He is."

"I think he's my dad." She says. Unprompted and without any reason behind it, just for saying it's sake.

"Don't be ridiculous." Is Damian's quick response "You were made with the DNA of-"

"I know dummy!" She rolls her eyes at him "I didn't mean _biological_ dad, I mean just dad."

At that he pauses and stares at her with his eyebrows up into his forehead. Heh, weirdo. "Did he tell you that?" Damian asks, she shrugs and he grunts. "I need to speak with Pennyworth." He mutters once his eyebrows make their way back to his eyes. And then reaches to take her hand. "Come."

She snatches her hand back and crosses her arms. "Piggyback!" She demands, standing her ground. He glares at her for about half a minute before giving in.

"Tt. Fine." He gives up, and then squats so she can climb on his back.

Damian's fun.

 

\-----------------

 

"You seem tired, Master Richard. May I offer you some tea?" Alfred appears out of nowhere, a cup of tea already in his hand. Dick accepts easily and goes back to resting his back against the window.

"Thanks." When the butter doesn't leave he turns his attention from the garden and towards him, realizing Alfred probably has something to say.

"Master Damian came to me recently." He stops beating around the bush. "He was worried about the fact Miss Mira was referring to you as her father."

"Shit." He sucks in a breath.

"Language."

"...Sorry."

"Given your reaction, I would assume this hasn't been the first time this happens." Alfred correctly guesses. Dick feels tempted to go back to looking outside the window but pushes it aside and keeps looking at his face.

"Around a week ago, she asked me if me and Wally were her parents."

"And may I know what you told her?"

"I don't know." He winces "I mean, I told her I don't know. Then promised to buy her toys if she didn't speak about it with Wally." The frown Alfred gives him has him feeling like a little kid caught doing something bad all over again. His hold around the cup of tea tightens as he feels himself shrinking under the stare  "Yeah, I know."

"And do you have an answer now?" Alfred continues, mercifully easing the frown in his face.

Dick drinks from the teacup in an attempt to buy time. It's sweet, with lots of sugar like he likes it. Tastes like home. He ends drinking it all.

"Why does everyone suddenly want me to become a father?" He asks, leaving the cup on the windowsill. "Seriously, Wally, Bruce, now even you. What's going on?"

"I apologise if it feels that way." Alfred rests a hand on his shoulder "But I assure you we aren't trying to pressure you into anything, we just want to make sure you won't regret anything. Whatever you choose, we will support that."

He looks back at the garden. The sun starting to disappear below the horizon. And then back at Alfred, his eyes _kind._ And dammit he has never been able to lie to him, not even now.

"She's a great kid." He slowly admits. "A really great kid. She's smart and creative and so full of energy and I just… I really, _really_ like her. I think I love her."

"Then-"

"But… But, anytime. _Every single time_ I try to settle down something happens and ruins it, or sometimes I ruin it myself. And it's a _person._ I can't ruin that, can't burn it down and move to something else, if I say yes then that's it, and what if I fuck it up like I always do? It wouldn't just be myself I'm hurting. So that's why…"

The hand on his shoulder squeezes and he finds himself looking up. He isn't even sure when he looked down.

"It's a good thing to think before making such a big decision." Alfred tells him, looking him in the eye. "But there's also such a thing as thinking it too much. You must remember that whatever you do you aren't alone in it. And I'm not talking only of Young Wallace. All your family and your friends will always be willing to help, we won't let you, as you so crudely put it." His mustache twitches in disdain at the next words. "Mess it up."

"Do you… Really think that?"

"My boy. If there's one thing I've learned with this family's tradition of accidental adoptions." He can't help but to smirk at that. "Is that when you meet someone you want to keep close you fight to make it so. It applies not only to friends but family too, perhaps even more."

"Thanks Alfie." Dick mutters, leaning forward to give the old man a hug. "I… Think it really helped."

"I'm here to help." And with that he goes away, as suddenly as he came.

Dick looks outside the window, to the day that's already turning into night and feels something loose inside him.

Maybe he _is_ thinking it too much.

After all, hasn't he always thought with his heart instead of his brain?

 

\-----------------

 

It's early morning. Wally's eating breakfast at the manor's dining room, with Dick, Mira, Bruce and Damian sitting at the table too, when Dick puts his spoon down and starts to speak. "Mira. You asked me if I was your dad."

Wally chokes into his waffles.

"What?!" Why didn't he hear about that?!

He turns towards the kid, who's frowning at Wally God knows why. "So you won't buy me more toys?" She asks for some reason.

"I told you I didn't know." Dick continues, not answering the kid's question. "But I wanted to know what did you think? What… Would you want?"

In three seconds the atmosphere goes from 0 to 100. Like changing the channel from a sitcom to the climactic scene of a drama. Wally's eyes move between Dick and Mira, the food long forgotten. Sitting at the other side of the table, he can feel Bruce and Damian doing the same.

"I think you are. I would like that." The kid answers, not bothering to swallow her food first, like she's the only one who hasn't realized they changed the channel.

"I… Think the same." Dick tells her. And then goes back to his cereal like nothing happened just now. Like Wally's heart wasn't hammering into his chest like a scared mouse.

"Wait." He says "Does that mean…"

Dick bites a smile, and nods. And that's it, with just that little conversation over breakfast he's a parent. _They_ are parents. He can't believe it.

He can't help it, before he knows it he's moving to gather his boyfriend and _daughter_ into a hug. Not even caring about how his super speed moves the table, rattling the plates, making more than one fall and break.

"Ah, my cereal!"

"Nooo! My pancakes!"

"West, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Language."

"Sorry, I'm just… Excited!"

"It's fine Walls, me too."

"It's not fine! My pancakes!"

"Sorry!"

 

\----------------

 

"Hey, Wally." Dick- Dad mutters. _Dad._ "You awake?"

"Now I am." Dad answers.

Hm. Dad and Dad… She needs to differentiate the two. But also, it's so funny when she calls for one of them and both turn around.

If she starts calling them interchangingly 'Dad 1' and 'Dad 2' without ever telling them who's who how funny would that be?

"I was thinking." Dad continues. Still whispering. They don't know she's awake too. She hugs her stuffed deer a bit closer. It was a gift from Bruce… Grandpa? Anyway, her name is Nana. "Maybe we should move to somewhere bigger? The apartment is pretty small."

"You were the one worried about money and logistics and now you want to move? Really?"

"Hey. Why not? The hard part's done, if we're gonna do this we might as well go all in."

"Hmmm… I'm _not_ opposed to it. But how is that going to work? Bruce pays for it?"

"Justice League, actually."

"Oh, ok then."

"We're three people now and Mira's already running out of space for her toys, so."

"That's because she doesn't stop making those damn bouncing balls." She elbows him, making it seem like she does that in her sleep. "Ouch."

"I want an attic. We keep putting everything we don't need under the beds and we both know we're incapable of throwing away anything."

"Then I want a kitchen. A big one. With lots of stuff. Like steam pots and a rolling pin and an actual oven."

"...Ok? But why? We don't cook. I mean, we can heat stuff and maybe scramble some eggs, and make pasta, but we don't cook-cook."

"We might as well learn. Why don't we enter a class? Together? Or maybe just ask aunt Iris to teach us. You said it, if we're doing this let's go all in."

"I want a backyard." She adds. "With a treehouse." They go silent, realizing she isn't asleep.

"A backyard with a tree then. And then we three build the treehouse." Dad mutters into her back, tugging her closer.

"Well, we two really. Mira would just kinda watch. I'm not letting her play with tools."

"Hey!" She argues. "I can make… Like. Screws and stuff."

"...It would save us some money." Dad ponders.

"We will see into it."

"How about a library?"

"A _library?_ Like an actual library?"

"Well, not a big one. More like a study. We could put our DVDs and my old VHS there too."

"I want a library too." She supports the idea. Dad grunts.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow. Go to sleep."

"Buuuu."

"Go to sleep Mira. It's late." He says, leaning to leave a kiss on her hair.

"Fine. Fine…" She mutters, and then closes her eyes. "Goodnight dad 1. Goodnight dad 2."

"...What did you just say?"

 

\----------------

 

"I almost had a heart attack. I don't even know how she reached the top of the fridge." The boy who used to swing on the candelabre says, without a hint of self awareness.

"It must have been terrible." Bruce all but deadpans.

"I swear, and then she _jumped._ Sure, I was there to catch her but still! I don't know what she was thinking!" Dick goes on, ignoring him. In exchange Bruce also ignores him, moving his attention to the other side of the room.

There, Damian's trying to teach his niece how to pet Titus without harassing the dog. Wally's there too, hovering anxiously, as if expecting the dog to bite her.

Alfred walks in and offers the kids cookies. Mira takes one and sniffs it before biting into it. He turns his head back in time to catch the end of Dick's story. "...So we had to buy a new one."

"Have you thought of any schools yet?" He finds himself asking and Dick's attention snaps back at him. Mutually ignoring session over, it seems.

"A bit. We've been arguing a lot about whether or not to let her skip grades. She already can read and write and she knows more science and maths than most kids, but I would like her to spend time around kids her age. So."

"I would give my opinion, but you would just ignore it, wouldn't you?"

"You know it." Dick winks. "Knowing you, you would suggest a really expensive private school."

"In my experience-"

"Absolutely not."

He grunts and crosses his arms. Dick just looks at him like he's the unreasonable one. "How's your job? Both of yours?" Bruce asks.

He knows they talked about one of them leaving it, but he also knows neither of them _want_ to.

"So far our bosses have been very understanding, so we've been doing fewer hours." He shrugs "It's not permanent, obviously, but we will figure something out."

"That's good…"

Bruce feels a weak tug at his clothes, and when he looks down the Miracle's got a handful of his shirt, trying to get his attention. "Grandpa!" She calls, and it isn't even the first time he hears it, but even now the word melts something in his insides.

"What do you need, Mira?" He asks. She smiles from ear to ear and takes a step back.

"Look what I can do!" She tells him, moments before doing a perfect headstand. She holds it for about two minutes and then gets down. "Did you see?!"

"Impressive. Did Dick teach you that?" He smiles at her. She bounces on her feet and nods.

"I'm gonna go play with Uncle Dami and Titus at the garden, can I? I can right?" She asks quickly, already moving to leave without waiting for an answer.

"I think I will go too." Dick starts to stand up. "Wally probably needs a break already."

Before he can walk away, Bruce catches his wrist. He stops and turns towards him, one eyebrow raised.

"What?"

Bruce lets go of him. He takes a breath, and says. "I'm happy for you two… You three."  

Dick smiles, an honest smile, and goes to join the rest of his family.

Before disappearing through the door, Bruce swears he can hear a distant. "Yeah, we're happy too."

Bruce smiles. Shakes his head "Why am I still sitting here?" and gets up to go join his sons on playing with his grandkid.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this was gonna be just an one shot for the week and that was it but I ended really really liking Mira so I'm probably gonna end writing more of her on the future. Who knows! _-She said, acting as if she didn't already design Mira's superhero costume for when she becomes older-_
> 
> As always please remember to comment, it feeds my soul!!!! ✨💕✨💕✨💕✨


End file.
